If you are interested in not just financial security but financial independence where you don’t have to worry about making money anymore, than you need to focus on getting out there and not worry about saving money. Watch the video above to find out how you can’t become wealthy by saving, instead you need to make money to match your dreams.

Very successful people are not interested in whether the other party in a negotiation either wins or loses, their eye is always on the prize. In the video above, I discuss with Russell Sarder how successful individuals have learned to negotiate properly and will walk away from a deal or negotiation if the money is not there. If you want financial success, follow the win win or I walk” behavior.

Steve Jobs is a business brilliant entrepreneur because of his failures and his ability to persevere through adversity. In the video above, I sit with Russell Sarder to discuss how business failure is something you have to go through, a learning process, to achieve ultimate business success rather than an act of shame. Like going to the dentist, having a failure is something you don’t look forward to but something you have to survive.

I have been an entrepreneur since high school and along the way, I have had so many failures along the way, including a missed opportunity to grow a business between two companies where I mishandled the whole process. Watch the video above to find out how I was able to take this failure, and you can too, to turn it into being business brilliant.

Try this Business Brilliant exercise: spend 10 minutes to write down what you are exceptionally good at. Watch the video above what happened what happened when I did this exercise. Share what you are exceptionally good at in the comments below.

You will always raise your game to the people around you. In the video above, I discuss with Russell Sarder the whole process of being mentored encapsulates the best of successful networking. Finding people who are better than you at what you are trying to achieve will always improve your knowledge and skill level. Who is your mentor?

I recently met with Russel Sarder to discuss his book, Learning. In the short video above, I talk about how one can learn a lot from notable and famous people and what they say and think in terms of philosophy and how they approached learning. According to Schiff we have a lot to learn from these folks and the book offers an opportunity to read these great teachings.

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs begin their ventures with challenges that would stop most others. How do they do it? By building teams whose strengths compensate for those weaknesses.

Richard Branson is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. But many people don’t know that Branson suffers from Dyslexia and has claimed that he can barely read a financial spreadsheet. How does someone build a vast global empire with such obstacles in his path? Could his weaknesses actually lead to success?

Branson is like several other well-known and lesser known entrepreneurs who were forced to rely on their teams because of challenges like Dyslexia. Time and time again, it becomes clear that focusing on personal strengths–and seeking out others whose strengths compensate for their weaknesses—is a formula for success.

Kirkus Review says:
An engaging look at 'realigning our career-development practices with the world we live in today'

“Having started Edible Arrangements, an international franchise with more than 1,000 stores, I know that the more “business brilliant” my franchise partners are, the more likely they are to build hugely successful stores. I wish I had read this book a decade ago.”

Tariq Farid, Founder and CEO,

Edible Arrangements

“Whether you are starting a new business or navigating your career, conventional wisdom doesn’t get you very far. Lewis Schiff clearly outlines the true characteristics of success.”

Steve Hindy, Founder and

President, Brooklyn Brewery and

co-author of Beer School

Praise for Business Brilliant

An engaging look at ‘realigning our career-development practices with the world we live in today’

Inc. magazine’s Business Owners Council executive director Schiff (The A to Z Money Book from Armchair Millionaire, 2005, etc.) presents research on the differences in outlook between two groups: those with incomes in the range of $1 million to $10 million and those with incomes between $50,000 and $80,000. “The starkness of the gap between the two groups was stunning,” he writes—as was “the conflict” between the ideas of those who have achieved success and those who haven’t. The author presents the research along with case studies and arguments against popularly held misconceptions about how people get rich. Schiff takes issue with experts like Suze Orman who recommend savings and frugality as the path to riches; the author argues that it distracts from the goal of making more money. He examines the origins of the financial success of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, and he is also concerned with establishing the importance of taking ownership and responsibility for financial and life decisions. He emphasizes repeatedly the importance of asking and learning negotiating skills. Most new hires, he writes, do not negotiate salaries and terms with their employers, leaving thousands of dollars on the table because of it. Schiff also discusses how to formulate negotiating strategies and put together financial plans, and he provides a list of “essentials” for becoming business brilliant, including: “Write Down Your Goals,” “Commit to What You Do Best,” “Get a Coach” and “Don’t Procrastinate.

Not necessarily groundbreaking, but a mostly intriguing, different kind of take on the self-help moneymaking genre.

Having started Edible Arrangements, an international franchise with more than 1,000 stores, I know that the more “business brilliant” my franchise partners are, the more likely they are to build hugely successful stores. I wish I had read this book a decade ago.

Mark Ganem

This is a thoroughly researched book that explains definitively how successful people think and operate.

Barbara Jacobs, Booklist

Don’t pooh-pooh this alternative view of success right off the bat. Entrepreneur and author Schiff (The Armchair Millionaire, 2001; The Middle-Class Millionaire, 2007) builds his narrative on solid evidence, including research data comparing and contrasting the self-made person with the usual middle class. The lessons are drawn not only from “survey says” but also lifted from the lives of well-known, powerful entrepreneurs, such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Suze Orman, and others. His seven tenets are simple and supported by both facts and emotions: do what you love, but follow the money; save less, earn more; imitate, don’t innovate; know-how is good, know-who is better; win-win is a loser; spread the work, spread the wealth; and nothing succeeds like failure. Where he falters is in the last chapter, where the LEAP (learn-earn, assistance-persistence) principles and its activities are detailed. Why? It’s the makings of another book, and too dense for maximum impact.

Steve Hindy, Founder and President, Brooklyn Brewery and co-author of Beer School

Whether you are starting a new business or navigating your career, conventional wisdom doesn’t get you very far. Lewis Schiff clearly outlines the true characteristics of success.

Is it true that being brilliant at business has little to do with IQ or education? Does that explain why Richard Branson became a billionaire even though he is dyslexic and can’t read a financial spreadsheet? And why a high-school educated circus clown crafted the most impressive show of our time—Cirque du Soleil?

In his book Business Brilliant Lewis Schiff busts the commonly held myths around achieving success in business.

Mr. Schiff offers an interesting look at some of the most notable cases of successes and failures in the business world and backs it up with the extensive research he calls the Business Brilliant survey that was conducted among self-made millionaires.

…

This short summary doesn’t do justice to the full spectrum of the arguments and data that the author presents in the book. I highly recommend picking it up and experiencing it for yourself.